Religion

Return to Common Sense

November 15, 2016

Section: Culture
– Religion

“The Constitution
erects a wall, not to protect government from religion, but rather to protect
religion from government.”

“Every man, conducting himself as a good citizen,
and being accountable to God alone for his religious opinions, ought to be
protected in worshiping the Deity according to the dictates of his own
conscience.” George Washington.

Philosophy
(Background, Issues, Objectives):

Religious freedom is widely regarded as
America’s “first freedom”
– the cornerstone of our nation’s political and civil liberties.

Declaration of
Independence states that “unalienable Rights are endowed by the
Creator.”

Constitution
Amendment I states “Congress
shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting
the free exercise thereof.”

“Separation of Church and State”
is not in the Constitution, but was part of a letter by Thomas Jefferson
in 1802.

As of 2014, the United States is 71%
Christian, 2% Jewish, 23% unaffiliated and the rest less than 1% Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist,
and other faiths.

47% are Protestant, 21% are Catholic, and
another 4% other Christian faiths.

Adults are the most religious as reach 30
and raise their own children.

22% of Protestants and 6% of Catholics live
in the South.

6% of Protestants, 5% of Catholics, and 1%
of Jews live in the Northeast.

8% of Protestants, 5% of Catholics, and 2%
of Mormons and other Christians live in the West.

11% of Protestants and 4% of Catholics live
in the Midwest.

American Founders based much of their
thinking on Judeo-Christian religious principles.

Early Christian
thinkers helped write many of the early political documents:

oAlfred the Greatset
theTen Commandmentsas the center of English law,
using biblical legal analysis for his laws, laying the foundation for
subsequent development of Common Law.

oChristian
scholarWilliam of
Ockham’s
analysisof mankind’s place
after expulsion from Paradise, helped develop the
ideas ofNatural
Law,Consent of the Governed,
& Natural Rights.

oThe
Magna Carta,
the greatest legal document in British and American history, was articulated
and composed byStephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury.

There is logic to assert that
Socialism has been established as a secular religion and an unofficial national
church.

·Socialism
exhibits all the same elements as a religion:

oGarden
of Eden (the State of Nature).

oOriginal
Sin (Amassing private property).

oA
Promise of Salvation (socialist salvation by future generations).

·Marx
has become a mythical, god-like figure.

·Darwin
is the embodiment of science and truth.

·The
state-planner, the minister of socialist religion, sees himself as a modern-day
Moses uniquely qualified by his knowledge about the so-called Immutable Law of
History to guide humanity to earthly perfection, back to the Original State of
Nature.